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Rising to the challenges : assessing the impacts of organisational capacity building

HAILEY, John
JAMES, Rick
WRIGLEY, Rebecca
February 2005

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This paper “offers a brief overview of current thinking and practice in relation to the impact assessment of organisational capacity building interventions. The paper highlights some of the conceptual, methodological and practical challenges (issues of clarity, power and culture, among others) and then goes on to provide an overview of some of the practical approaches that have been adopted by NGOs and CSOs to overcome these challenges.   A ‘thought piece’ designed to engage practitioners (particularly those from developing and transitional countries) in a fruitful debate, it identifies the key challenges towards which INTRAC could most usefully focus its future efforts. These include the need to improve understanding of the particular characteristics of the impact assessment of organisational capacity building and to generate and document innovative, adaptable and accessible approaches. A final challenge is to consider how to raise the profile of impact assessment for organisational capacity building practitioners, so that it is viewed as a vital tool to assist organisational learning, rather than a time-consuming and costly burden”

Praxis Paper n°2

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